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Legally, Green Arrow got a raw deal

Fan opinion on the mini-series Justice League: Cry for Justice was mixed (putting it nicely), but it inarguably had dire consequences for Green Arrow. After the destruction of a pretty massive part of his hometown of Star City and the death of his sidekick’s daughter, Green Arrow finished the series by putting an arrow in the head of the villain Prometheus. Very un-Arrowish, fans would argue (he was, after all, the guy that used to have boxing glove arrows). But it did have serious consequences for the character in his own title. Green Arrow was put on trial for murder in Star City, then acquitted by a jury, only to be told to leave town by the judge. He subsequently moves into the big honking forest that showed up in Star City, apparently to make him all Robin Hood-like.

For starters, Green Arrow had not killed Prometheus in Star City, but rather in the villain’s headquarters in Limbo. Therefore he would be out of the Star City legal system’s jurisdiction and not able to be tried for the crime there. And since there is no legal syster in Limbo to prosecute him, Arrow would be free and clear on legal ramifications. But we’ll ignore that…and the fact that no heroes faced legal ramifications for all the Black Lanterns that got offed during Blackest Night. During the trial itself, Green Arrow was allowed to stand up and deliver a monologue without the need for cross examination from the prosecutor. But this is coming from a city who couldn’t figure out that Green Arrow was Oliver Queen with a tiny little mask on.

So finally, Green Arrow is acquitted of the murder charge by a jury (which is the only thing the writer says made sense in the whole deal), but is still told to leave town by the judge. Except once a defendant is acquitted of a crime, that’s that. A judge can’t go ahead and punish them anyway. That completely negates the need for a trial by jury. What was the point of the entire trial?

A very amusing article, for sure. He even continues on to complain about Brightest Day #0 in which both the recently resurrected Captain Boomerang and Professor Zoom are put in a regular jail despite not having committed any crimes and allowed to remain in their costumes (as Green Arrow also was). Boomerang and Zoom had been dead for some time and had not had time to commit any crimes before Barry Allen went ahead and locked them up anyway…for crimes they may commit in the future?